It is common to drop a syllable. Most peasants say vegables for vegetables. “WINNEL. The thrush that comes in winter in covies— a very 'naish' (tender) bird. Used by ex-gamekeeper, about 70, whose life has been passed on the southern border of Dartmoor.-March, 1887. J. D.” The commonest name throughout the West for the Redwing-Turdus iliacus. WIPPUL-SQUIP = a hollow piece of the tube of a 'biller.' 'Come 'u vind eout, thay 'd drinked up tha' cider weth a wippul-squip.' Is this only an instance of individual usage? I have been unable to find any traces of it in Devonshire except in the above case. Authority. Farmer's wife, aged 70, born in Somerset, resident for last thirty years in MidDevon.-January 30th, 1887. S. R." This is a well-known name for the green stalk of the cow-parsnip-Heraclium sphondyllium-but less common in Somerset than Limperscrimp. "WIVERING (rhymes with quivering) = hovering. A gamekeeper at Culmstock, age about 38 (not our usual friend), said, 'I do zee two or dree hawks wiverin 'pon the hill 'most every day.'-June 12th, 1886. F. T. E." The common "WOOD WAUL, or WOOD'ALL, or 'OOD'ALL. woodpecker; used by an ex-gamekeeper, about 70, whose life has been passed on the southern border of Dartmoor. Could not say how it should be spelt-waul or wall? Probably the former, as describing the sound-'Us be goin' to have rain; the 'ood'alls be holling.'-March, 1887. J. D.” Common name all over Devon and Somerset for Gecinus viridis. This name is very old. In the Promp. Parv., 1440, is WODEWALE, bryd, idem quod Reynefowle (or Wodehake, supra). See Wodewale in Halliwell. The woodweele sang and wolde not cease Sitting upon the spray, So lowde he wakened Robin Hood In the greenwood where he lay." Ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. Not only in England has the woodpecker long been connected with rain, but in Scandinavia, in Germany, and in France are legends which declare the bird to have been condemned by the Almighty to drink no other than rainwater; hence its shrill cry, which we translate, "Wet! Wet! Wet!" In the Gironde it is called Plui-plui! and in other parts of France it is l'avocat or le procureur du meunier (miller's provider). The idea is that he is always crying out for rain, like a miller short of water. "YARK = look yark, make haste. A general dealer, a native of Moretonhampstead, and about 40 years of age, said, 'You must look yark to catch the train.'-October 28th, 1886. -J. S. N." See Sixth Report of Devonshire Provincialisms. Admitted again to show that this very old English word is still comparatively common. "ZARY = threadbare, gauzy. Used by a domestic servant, native of North Devon.-February, 1887. J. D." This surely must be seary; i.e. scorched, and hence threadbare. Anglo-Saxon, searian-to dry up. Modern Old German,sôren. Seere, or dry, as treys or herleys.-Aridus. Seeryn, or dryyn; Areo, aresco.-Promp. Parv. Mury time is the weod to sere; The corn reputh in the ere; The lady is rody in the chere; And maide bryght in the lere." Weber, Met. Rom. Kyng Alisaunder, 1. 796. "ZEBM-SLAPER (seven sleeper) = the Dormouse. At Culmstock a keeper's boy, aged about 10, pulled out the nest of a dormouse. I said, 'What have you got, Jimmy?' 'A zebmslaper, zir.'-December 29th, 1886. F. T. E." NINTH REPORT OF THE BARROW COMMITTEE. NINTH REPORT of the Barrow Committee-consisting of Mr. P. F. S. Amery, Mr. G. Doe, Mr. P. O. Hutchinson, Mr. E. Parfitt, Mr. J. Brooking Rowe, and Mr. R. N. Worth (Secretary), to collect and record facts relating to Barrows in Devonshire, and to take steps where possible for their investigation. Edited by R. N. WORTH, F.G.S., Hon. Secretary. (Read at Plympton, July, 1887. THE Committee regret that they have not been favoured with the communications that had been anticipated. There is a large quantity of information relating to the Barrows of Devon requiring record, and it is earnestly hoped that all members of the Association will assist in bringing it together. The notes appended deal merely with Plymouth and its vicinity. J. BROOKING ROWE, Chairman. PLYMOUTH HOE. Human remains have been found during the present year on Plymouth Hoe, in the course of the excavations for the removal of the outworks of the Citadel and the erection of the Marine Biological Laboratory. Only in one instance, however, did the conditions seem to imply remote antiquity, and that was in the case of an interment, at length, on the very edge of the cliff. Nothing, however, appears to have accompanied the remains, which were examined by the Secretary, but presented no peculiarity. MOUNT BATTEN. The low-lying isthmus of earth and shingle which connects the limestone hill of Mount Batten with the mainland of Staddon Heights, has been the place of hundreds of interments of various periods, and some of these appear to date back to very early times. Mr. F. Brent, F.S.A., found a number of fragments of a burial urn of the rudest type, associated with human remains, while investigating the kitchen midden exposed in the bank on the northern face; and there can be no question as to the claim of this discovery to find a place in the Barrow Record. Other interments are occasionally exposed as the tide encroaches; but there is no reason to assign to them a very great antiquity. Not only have burials of drowned sailors taken place on the isthmus, but there is evidence that the bulk of the men who fell here during the hard fighting between the Roundheads and Cavaliers at the siege of Plymouth, when Mount Stamford and Hoe Stert (the older name of Mount Batten) were the scene of several desperate and bloody encounters, were interred on the spot. Upwards of forty skeletons were dug up in putting in the foundations of the public-house at Batten beach, and in adjoining graves the remains were associated with fragments of clothing and iron cannon-balls. Some years since a large stone was uncovered in digging, a short distance off, which raised hopes of buried treasure, but was found to cover a pit filled with bones, probably a reinterment. EIGHTH REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON WORKS OF ART IN DEVONSHIRE. EIGHTH REPORT of the Committee-consisting of the Right Hon. Lord Clifford (Chairman), Dr. T. N. Brushfield, Mr. R. Dymond, Mr. A. H. A. Hamilton, Mr. G. Pycroft, Mr. John Shelly (Secretary), and Mr. R. N. Worth appointed to prepare a Report on the public and private collections of Works of Art in Devonshire. Edited by JOHN SHELLY, Hon. Secretary. (Read at Plympton, July, 1887.) THE Committee now present a Report on the pictures belonging to the Right Honourable the Earl of Morley, at Saltram, near Plymouth. Only the more remarkable pictures of the collection are included in the following list. It is chiefly distinguished for the number of portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds which it contains. A complete list of these is given below, though some of them are now in Lord Morley's house in London. It is stated in the catalogue compiled by Frances, Countess of Morley, and privately printed in 1844, that "a very considerable portion of the collection was purchased at Rome, in 1750 or 1751, for the father of John [first] Earl of Morley, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was then prosecuting his studies in that capital." The collection also comprises several paintings by Angelica Kauffmann, among which are a very interesting portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one of herself. The ceiling of the great saloon and the ceiling and panels on the walls of the dining-room are painted by Lorenzo Zucchi (born at Venice, 1704; died, 1780), to whom she was married after the death of her first husband. Frances, Countess of Morley, the compiler of the catalogue, was herself an amateur of much skill, and the collection contains some excellent copies by |